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President Barack Obama asked Congress Thursday for $83.4 billion in new contingency funds to maintain U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and ramp up spending in conjunction with Pakistan to counter the Taliban threat to the Afghan government.

“We face a security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan that demands urgent attention,” Obama said in a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “The Taliban is resurgent and al Qaeda threatens America from its safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border.”

The Defense Department accounts for more than 90 percent of the request, but $7.1 billion would flow separately through State and foreign aid accounts, including a novel, non-war related $448 million fund set aside to help poor countries cope with the worldwide economic crisis.

While Iraq still accounts for the larger share of the military’s operations, the request reflects a decided shift toward Afghanistan and forging a greater partnership with Pakistan.

The Pentagon’s portion, for example, includes a new $400 million fund in which Defense and State will work to improve the ability of Pakistan’s military to carry out counter insurgency operations and disrupt the border havens Obama spoke of in his letter.

This complements an estimated $1.4 billion in coalition military support related to Iraq as well as Afghanistan but already going more and more to Pakistan.

Within foreign aid and State accounts, the administration said Pakistan will receive about $1.4 billion, including an estimated $859 million to pay for State operations, security and embassy related construction.

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The comparable numbers for Afghanistan include $3.6 billion in military funds for Afghan security forces as part of Obama’s effort to beef up the Kabul government’s own troop levels.

Within State and foreign aid accounts, the administration estimates Afghanistan will benefit from $1.6 billion of the request, including economic assistance and anti-narcotics operations as well as $457 million for diplomatic operations, oversight and security.

Briefings were held in the Capitol earlier in the day, but the formal legislative request — running 99 pages—was not released until the evening after Obama’s letter to Pelosi.

Major questions remain and the scope of the requests runs far past just the wars themselves. Aid is included for UN peacekeeping operations in Africa for example, and $38 million to try to ease the divisions in Kenya. Making good on past U.S. commitments, Obama includes $242.5 million for the Republic of Georgia to recover after the fighting last summer with Russia. At the same time authority is requested to effectively transfer up to $30 million in defense funds to State so as to improve the traffic control and air space system in the Kyrgyz Republican to help flights important to the conflict in Afghanistan.

Closer to home, Obama includes $30 million for the Justice Department to implement his orders regarding the shutdown of the Guantanamo Bay prison and $250 million for forest and wild land firefighting operations in the U.S.

Going forward, the $400 million counter insurgency fund with Pakistan was the subject of a second round of closed-door briefings Thursday and is sure to be important in the debate. The full scope of the $448 million related to the world economic crisis is a second question mark but is described as a bilateral U.S. program quite apart from any new commitments to the International Monetary Fund.

Altogether, within the package, new Pentagon spending would total about $75.5 billion. This includes $59.9 billion most directly related to operations, equipment and personnel costs for the wars; $3.1 billion for intelligence related costs and about $11.6 billion for additional procurement, such as $2.4 billion for Air Force planes and drones.

Four F-22A Raptors would be purchased, and an unspecified number of the MQ-9 Reaper, a medium to high altitude unmanned aerial vehicle which has been used in Iraq and now in Afghanistan.

Together with prior bridge funding provided last fall by Congress, total defense contingency spending would be $141.7 billion for the 2009 fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.

Obama pressed Congress to act quickly; the Pentagon wants its money by the Memorial Day recess. “I want Congress to send me a focused bill and do so quickly,” the president said.

"I believe demolishing Hussein's military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk." - Kenneth Adelman, member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board, 2/13/02

"Having defeated and then occupied Iraq, democratizing the country should not be too tall an order for the world's sole superpower." - William Kristol, Weekly Standard editor, and Lawrence F. Kaplan, New Republic senior editor, 2/24/03

"I don't believe that anything like a long-term commitment of 150,000 Americans would be necessary." - Richard Perle, speaking at a conference on "Post-Saddam Iraq" sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute, 10/3/02

"It's hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and to secure the surrender of Saddam's security forces and his army. Hard to image." - Paul Wolfowitz, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, testifying before the House Budget Committee, 2/27/03

"Iraq is a very wealthy country. Enormous oil reserves. They can finance, largely finance the reconstruction of their own country. And I have no doubt that they will." - Richard Perle, Chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board, 7/11/02

"The likely economic effects [of the war in Iraq] would be relatively small... Under every plausible scenario, the negative effect will be quite small relative to the economic benefits." - Lawrence Lindsey, White House Economic Advisor, 9/16/02

"It is unimaginable that the United States would have to contribute hundreds of billions of dollars and highly unlikely that we would have to contribute even tens of billions of dollars." - Kenneth M. Pollack, former Director for Persian Gulf Affairs, U.S. National Security Council, 9/02

"The costs of any intervention would be very small." - Glenn Hubbard, White House Economic Advisor, 10/4/02

"When it comes to reconstruction, before we turn to the American taxpayer, we will turn first to the resources of the Iraqi government and the international community." - Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, 3/27/03

"There is a lot of money to pay for this that doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people. We are talking about a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon." - Paul Wolfowitz, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, testifying before the Defense Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, 3/27/03

"The United States is committed to helping Iraq recover from the conflict, but Iraq will not require sustained aid." - Mitchell Daniels, Director, White House Office of Management and Budget, 4/21/03

"Iraq has tremendous resources that belong to the Iraqi people. And so there are a variety of means that Iraq has to be able to shoulder much of the burden for ther own reconstruction." - Ari Fleischer, White House Press Secretary, 2/18/03

"Now, it isn't gong to be over in 24 hours, but it isn't going to be months either." - Richard Perle, Chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board, 7/11/02

"The idea that it's going to be a long, long, long battle of some kind I think is belied by the fact of what happened in 1990. Five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that." - Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, 11/15/02

"I will bet you the best dinner in the gaslight district of San Diego that military action will not last more than a week. Are you willing to take that wager?" - Bill O'Reilly, 1/29/03

"It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could be six days, six weeks. I doubt six months." - Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, 2/7/03

"I think it will go relatively quickly...weeks rather than months." - Vice President Dick Cheney, 3/16/03

Look, libs have got to realize, you cannot depend solely on the professionalism and dedication of the rank and file to get away with going on the cheap when it comes to vehicles, weapons and other equipment. The excellence of our soldiers can only do so much. At some point, you have to spend some money, too.

Regardless of what Sec. Gates, a fine man, says, the likelihood of large-scale conventional war is not over, and replacement platforms have to be in the pipeline to replace older weapons and equipment. The reason we're stretched thin today is precisely because we didn't learn that lesson during the 1990's defense cuts.

Look, libs have got to realize, you cannot depend solely on the professionalism and dedication of the rank and file to get away with going on the cheap when it comes to vehicles, weapons and other equipment. The excellence of our soldiers can only do so much. At some point, you have to spend some money, too.

Regardless of what Sec. Gates, a fine man, says, the likelihood of large-scale conventional war is not over, and replacement platforms have to be in the pipeline to replace older weapons and equipment. The reason we're stretched thin today is precisely because we didn't learn that lesson during the 1990's defense cuts.

Nothing to blame Bush for here. The main focus for Bush was Iraq and now that Iraq appears to be in a more stable position it's certainly time to work on Afghanistan. I would have preferred to finish Afghanistan 1st but Bush had other ideas. The merits(or lack thereof) of his decison will be debated and in the end history will write the perceived correctness of his actions.

Obama stop reading the teleprompter and start governing,,,,,,,,,,,,,, read some history, get out of Afghanistan, America cannot afford it. The IRS reports are -25% (that's minus)revenue so far, Fed has minus 151 Billion dollars this year,,,and the Stimulus took the cake at spending $$1.2 Trillion with interest. The Budget Obama wants passed has another 500 Billion in TARP nicely tucked away into it, along with defense spending. What the heck do you POTUS,,,NOT understand about the revenue in the USA these days? It's down, people are still out of work, and 60 Billion of TARP went to help out Foreign Banks. Get out of Afghanistan!! Like VietNam broke Johnson, this war is needless and Obama's campaign promise said,,"I will end the war." So end it, and stop spending. Maybe Obama's duality of personalities and judgement is catching up to him,, ie. ex-druggie, no Columbia College records to Harvard Law Review,,,, then,, from voting, NO , on Iraq as a Senator to sending 17,00 plus 4,000 more troops to Afghanistan. And bowing to the Saudi's to apologizing for America recent EU tour. How many personalities does Obama have?